Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell.com!ucsd!usc!samsung!uunet!cme!cam!koontz
From: koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E. Koontz X5180)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: Backup Program for PCNFS
Summary: Comments on Lifeline backup
Message-ID: <6249@alpha.cam.nist.gov>
Date: 14 Dec 90 16:57:24 GMT
References: <90.348.08:58:51@ira.uka.de>
Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Lines: 31

In article <90.348.08:58:51@ira.uka.de>, dbraun@i50s7.ira.uka.de writes:
> ... [for making backups from PC to file server with PC/NFS] ...
> Is LifeLine, a program mentioned in the PC NFS manual a solution?

It is reasonable for one or two technicians, but not reasonable for
larger numbers of non-technical users.  

If you back up to disk, you will have problem managing the large volume
of tar files with multiple users.  If you back up to tape, then someone
will have to mount/insert the tapes - either the end user, or the sysop
of the file server.  Think about the mechanics of either!   

Recovery is messy in either case, especially if you have backed the 
tar files off the server to tape.  Moreso if the user has been making
incremental dumps.  There is nothing to locate the current version of
an arbitrary file.  

The user interface is batch files plus tar - not up to the standards 
of the lamest PC-only backup system.  

On the other hand, for suitable kinds and numbers of users it sure beats
swapping diskettes, and it is rather cheaper than giving everyone their
own tape drive.  I have used it successfully to back up everything and
then recover everything when swapping hard drives in a system.

I wouldn't buy Lifeline for the backup feature, though.  The email is
what justifies its existence.  It isn't perfect, but it is a much better
effort than the backup and fairly reasonable for the average user.  
It is a bit misleading of Sun to market PC-NFS and Lifeline separately.
You need both to get the equivalent of most other TCP/IP products for
PCs.